1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement on a recorder made of synthetic resin, and more particularly, to a recorder which is free from defects otherwise encountered in woodwinds of this type that the tone quality as well as volume is reduced due to moisture condensation inside the windway.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Woodwinds in general and recorders, in particular, made of synthetic resin comprise a mouthpiece unit having a windway inside and an instrument body having plural tone holes. When a player breathes into the windway via the mouthpiece, his breaths act on the edge of the sounding window located beyond the windway to create sounds.
The windway inside the mouthpiece has an elongated rectangular cross section as if surrounded by walls on four sides and extends longitudinally along the mouthpiece unit for a predetermined length. The edge of the sounding window which opposes to the outlet of the windway has a width corresponding to the sectional configuration of the windway and a predetermined inclination when viewed from side. The positional relation of the outlet of the windway with the tip of the edge is of a great importance in generating tones correctly. Even a very slight deviation in the positional relation would result in wrong volume and quality of tones.
It often happens during performances, however, that correct tones in adequate volume can not be obtained even if said positional relation is correctly designed. This is mainly due to the fact that the moisture contained in warm breath becomes condensed when it contacts the wall of the windway which is lower in temperature than the breath. In other words, when the temperature difference between the warm breath and the inner wall of the windway is great, water vapor contained in the breath is cooled and becomes condensed by the windway wall. Dews or water drops formed on the wall reduce the cross sectional area of the windway, and create turbulences in the breath passing through the windway, or hampers the correct flow of breath corresponding to the adequately designed cross sectional area of the windway, making it difficult to obtain adequate flow of breath against the edge.
When dews collect inside the windway during a performance, the player must vigorously breath into the mouthpiece while closing the sounding window located beyond the mouthpiece unit with a hand to blow out the collected dews when he is not playing the instrument. This causes tremendous inconveniences.
Various proposals have heretofore been made to overcome the problem of moisture condensation in the windway of recorders. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,643,538 and 3,750,521 disclose recorders in which the windway provided in the mouthpiece unit is structured by a thin-walled member of a material different from that of the mouthpiece unit so that a space can be formed between the two members to shut off the cold ambient air from contacting directly with the inner wall of the windway.
Although the above construction does prevent the moisture condensation in the windway to some extent, it is not possible to completely prevent the condensation in the windway of which temperature is essentially different from that of breath, considering that the warm breath is constantly blown into the windway. In this sense, the conventional recorders do not fully overcome the problem of condensation and inconveniences caused thereby.